Five of the six schools (Mission, Flamands, Sudre, Berrette and Roche
Delmas, are located in extremely remote locations, accessible by rocky
roads where the access depends on the season. Many children walk hours to
get to school. On the first day we visited schools, there were lots of
children absent from Mission and Berrette: some of the roads had been
covered in mud because of the previous night's rains.
In general, we were impressed by the schools, which manage to educate
children under very modest conditions, but have pretty good state results.
Teachers speak good French for the most part. At the high school level,
subjects such as English, Spanish, Latin, physics and chemistry,
philosophy, history and geography are taught. Students are placed in
classes that reflect their level of education, not their age, so we saw
classes of Kindergarten which had children age 5 to 10, and classes of 5th
graders with children age 11 to 18. Students take state exams at the end of
the 6th grade and of the 9th grade (if they succeed, they can go to the
lycee, and then on to university if the parents have the means to do so.)
We were disappointed by the influence of French education (as done in the
early 20th century) on today’s schools. Teachers emphasize perfection
rather than creativity, and we found most students extremely shy and
unwilling to talk to us in either French or English, for fear of making
mistakes, we assume. We talked to directors and to Fr. Lampy about our
Godparents’ program. They confirmed that students are accepted as
Godchildren because they are poorer than most, either orphans, children in
large families, or with extremely poor parents. They also confirmed that
they stretch the money we send as widely as possible, so that it helps more
than the sponsored children. Finally, they said that if they can’t make
ends meet, teachers do not get paid, or get paid whenever money comes.
The requests for supplies to be sent in the Twinning Program container in
April 2013 are shoes, backpacks, bolts of fabric for school uniforms, pens,
pencils, crayons, chalk, small individual blackboards, French and
creole textbooks (we mentioned it might be difficult to find those,
but we will try to contact the French Embassy or Alliance francaise
in PAP).
Here is a resume of our visit to each school.
1- Berrette - A large school, run by Charlemagne Damis. We visited and were
welcomed by children from Pre K 3 to AF 9 (Age 3 to Grade 9). All classes
stood up and welcomed "Visiteurs etrangers". Some of them sang lovely
welcome songs to us. Classes were in session, children studying grammar, in
French and creole, or mathematics, mostly. In the small grades, mostly
singing and repeating in choir, or hands-on activities such as coloring or
writing on small blackboards. The older students spoke to us in French, but
little. They seem to have a better control of written French. We visited
the kitchen and saw the food supplies brought by Kamak. Lunch was served
early (around 10:30) as teachers had told Charlemagne that they had
witnessed children falling asleep in school for lack of food in the morning
after their long walk. Because the PreK sessions only go to 12pm, most kids
bring in snacks in their backpacks. If they aren't able to do so, teachers
provide a "collation" or snack for them. All children get treated the same
whether they can afford a snack or not. Snacks look like cookies, cereals,
or dried fruit, in small packages.
Two of the classes (3rd and 4th graders) meet in the church, as there is no
room for them in the school. Classes are moved around the church, depending
on the weather, because there is a big hole on two sides of the roof of the
church, which makes mass difficult to hold on rainy day, and of course also
affects the school days.
We had asked the Bishop of Arlington to give us some money to repair the
roof in the Berrette church. He had told us the money collected in the
Arlington parishes had been distributed through CRS.
WE PLAN TO VISIT CRS IN BALTIMORE, AS WELL AS THE CCBC, TO ASK WHY NONE OF
THE MONEY RAISED IN THE CHURCH COLLECTIONS HAs BEEN DISTRIBUTED TO THE
VICTIMS OF SANDY IN THE DIOCESE OF LES CAYES, AS CONFIRMED BY OUR VISIT
WITH THE BISHOP OF LES CAYES.
We met with Charlemagne at the end of the school day. He told us about the
requests from cooks that they be paid money from Kamak funds. Charlemagne
asks the students to bring a small contribution (5 gourdes) per day for
food, but he says that most students do not pay. This money was supposed to
be used to pay the cooks and buy spices to add to the prepared supplies.
(see Richard's report on Kamak).
We suggested that parents be asked to contribute either their work
(cooking) or supplies themselves if they can't pay. Charlemagne was pretty
negative about this suggestion, saying that most parents wouldn't. Students
have to pay 450 gourdes (about $10) for exams after the 6th and the 9th
grade, which is a strain for many.
He also thanked us for our Godparents’ contributions, but said that he
needs more money to run the school. We assured him that we were sending ALL
the money we were able to collect.
We talked about students' prospects after school. Berrette's successful 9th
graders go to Immaculee Conception in Cavaillon (Father Lampy’s school).
The others return home, work on gardens, but most do not find any
meaningful or paid activities.
We asked about the CRS report which mentioned the fact that the Haitian
Government paid schools fees ($90) for elementary schools. Charlemagne told
us that his school receives nothing from the government, and he said no one
can explain who receives subsidies and who doesn't.
We plan to visit the Haitian embassy to follow through on this problem, to
see if there is anything any of our schools can do to receive the subsidy.
Charlemagne was in the process of preparing the dossiers for this year,
which he delivered to us in Cavaillon before we left the following
Saturday. He gave us a USB key with pictures, which Angela promptly emailed
to the "Facebook" page which she had created for us.
Mission
Mission is a Prek-4 school, even more remote than Berrette, in a rural area
with few open spaces, mostly ragged woods. The director, Mr. Pierre
Estinvil, and his wife, a second grade teacher, welcomed us. We visited the
school, a four-room cinder-block building built by Build-On. Two of the six
classes meet in the modest church, and the director's desk sits in the
middle of the church during school days. Mr. Estinvil thanked the St
Charles Godparents profusely for the help provided, and gave us the
dossiers prepared for this year's Godchildren. He was in the process of
taking pictures, and those were completed by Angela and her Haitian helper/
driver Jean Michel, when they visited Mission again on Friday. The children
sang for us, told us about their prayers for us and all the Godparents.
Some of the rooms were decorated with crepe paper, and some handmade
posters. Students were learning, like in Berrette, grammar, math and some
science, in both French and Creole. Most students in the Annees
fondamentales (grade school) understood our French, as obvious by their
reaction to our presentation, but didn’t speak much.
We were impressed by the professionalism of Mr. Estinvil and the positive
atmosphere of the school and of the teaching staff. Mr. Estinvil thanked
the St Charles community for the lunch program which has made a big
difference in the children’s lives. We thanked him for last year’s work on
the dossiers, which were complete and well organized.
Flamands
Flamands is a small fishing village at the end of a cove on the Caribbean
sea, about 45 minutes from Cavaillon, on a dirt road, with no road
maintenance. Many teachers come from Cavaillon or Les Cayes, as do the
directors of the school, Antonine and Ronald Junius. We met with the
directors, and with the new parish priest Pere Rozenka Leclerc. We thanked
them for their work on our behalf, as last year’s dossiers were very well
organized and complete. Fr. Leclerc is a personable priest, very open, who
lives in a modest house in the village (his assistant lives in a tent in a
wooden porch). The school is a modest but well-kept cinderblock building,
the church next to it houses a couple of classes, and the clinic, built by
Saint Charles, is also in the compound. Fr. Leclerc has been at Flamands
for a month (his first parish) so he has a steep learning curve. We visited
the school, the clinic, and had a meeting with the school directors and the
pastor. The children were very lively, greeting us with “Bonjour, chers
visiteurs” and with songs. The school has classes from level Pre-K to grade
6, and had a 100% success rate in the state exam in the 6th grade. Again,
classes are mixed in age, because children are accepted where they are.
During our meeting with Fr. Leclerc and Antonine, Angela entertained the
children with “head, shoulder, knees and toes” which delighted them.
Antonine talked to us about a Mormon school, which opened recently in the
community, and pays families to send their children there. So there has
been a diminution of enrollment at Flamands. Fr. Lampy confirmed that this
was an attempt by the Mormon Church at evangelization, but at least
children are educated.
Antonine and Ronald have the same accounting problems as other schools as
few parents pay the full school fees, and few pay the 5 gourdes necessary
for school lunch, so they have issues paying the cooks and buying spices.
However, before we left for Miami, Ronald brought us a bag of local
seafood, to thank the committee and the godparents for their help. They
also gave us all the dossiers and pictures which Angela added to the
Facebook page.
We discussed with Fr. Leclerc Saint Charles’ relationship with Flamands,
and the possibility of a transition with the Saint Joseph parish in New
York. We assured them that we wouldn’t abandon them until a solution is
found with Saint Joseph or another sponsoring parish. We also discussed the
help they received from NOVA, which held a day clinic at the clinic
building in January 2013, for which they were very grateful.
Boileau
Boileau is a “suburb” of Cavaillon, so travel that day was very easy. By
the other schools standards, Boileau is wealthy. It is a large school, with
students from Prek 3 to 10th grade. They intend to extend the school to
Philo, which is Senior year in High School. The parish church looks brand
new, it is not completely finished but seems in good shape. The parish
priest house is also very fancy by Haitian standards, as is the clinic,
which is sponsored by NOVA.(Nova’s medical staff held a week’s clinic in
January 2013, and spent a day in the Flamands clinic as well. The Boileau
clinic is run by permanent staff, every day during the week, except
Wednesday (the day of our visit), so we didn’t see it in action, but Father
Ingrid gave us a tour of the building. The parish and the school are also
helped by St Philip of Texas, which gives funds and advice for gardens and
animal programs.
Fr Ingrid is the new priest (since July). We told him and the school
principal that we were disappointed by the few dossiers who had received
last year from Boileau, as their school received the most support from us.
He told us that it took him a while to get acquainted with the work, and
promised to do better this year. He did deliver all the dossiers before we
left, but pictures didn’t arrive in a correct format and we asked Jean
Michel to send them to us, using the system devised by Angela.
Fr.Ingrid asked us to give more money, more supplies, a sound system, a
basketball court. He told us he had the same money issues as the other
schools, but bigger because he has a bigger school. Unfortunately, his plan
to extend the school to include the two upper grades of high school will
make his problems bigger, because those levels are more expensive. Fr.
Lampy told him that he should send his upper level students to his high
school, Notre Dame,in Cavaillon in order to limit the costs.
We found the school to be well organized, but students were less engaging,
and the relationship between them and the principal didn’t seem as warm.
We saw the nutrition program, supplies, the kitchen, children eating their
lunch: the older children went to the kitchen to receive their plate and
ate in a common room, the younger children were fed in their classrooms.
Again, only children in Annees fondamentales receive a lunch plate. Younger
children either bring a snack or are given one in mid-morning, as well as a
drink, water or juice.
During a luncheon discussion with Fr. Ingrid, he mentioned that all
sponsored students and their family had to attend mass, if not they would
lose their scholarship. I asked them if all of them were Catholics, and he
said they were not.
Sudre
The Sudre school and parish are located in a mountain area north of
Cavaillon. The road is treacherous, especially since it is also curvy. The
school has students from Pre-k to grade 9, but the new priest, Pere
Innocent (new since January 2013) told us they plan to add the three upper
levels soon.
The whole school gathered outside to greet us, then we went into each
classroom. Classrooms varied from very full for the lowest grades (Pre-k)
and the highest grades, but the elementary grades had very few students (4
or 5). I asked the principal and Fr. Innocent for a reason, and they told
me that a public school had opened across the street, and that some
students had left for schools closer to their house. They couldn’t give us
exact numbers, but we heard that out of the 75 students that Saint Charles
had sponsored, only 27 were left in school this year.
The upper levels, which are housed in a different building about 5 blocks
away from the church and the elementary school, were very personable
classes, students responded with ease, volunteered explanations, even joked
with us. They spoke good French, some English, some Spanish, and studied
Latin. Some of the students told us of their ambitions (becoming doctors,
nurses, president...) One of the students asked us if we could help the
school more so that teachers could be paid more regularly!
We met with Fr. Innocent to talk about the future of our relationship with
Sudre. Fr Lampy and the Bishop of Les Cayes had confirmed that Sudre has
remained in the Les Cayes diocese (having switched with a parish now led by
Fr. Volcy which is in the Nippes diocese). We told Father Innocent we would
discuss the issue with Fr. Tuck, and with the committee, and ask that we
ease the transition until a new sponsoring parish could be found.
But we raised the question of why they wanted to add to their cost by
adding high school classes, which are most costly. We didn’t receive an
answer. We also asked them to find out what happened to all students who
dropped out of the school, and they told us they would try.
Bercy
The Bercy and Roche Delmas schools are situated in small but spread out
villages on the Western side of the Cavaillon river. To access them, we
went along a canal built by Americans during their occupation of Haiti in
the early 20th century. The canal is still in use, and the agriculture in
that area seems much better than in other places we saw earlier.
Bercy is a school sponsored by Thomas a Becket in Reston. We first saw the
church, where the Pre-K students were in class, 45 students in a group.
With three teachers, they were happily singing and dancing when we got
there, and greeted us with wide smiles. There was a new pump installed next
to the church, for use by the community, but the roof of the church
suffered damaged during Sandy and needs repair. The school, a mile or so
down the road, was built by a Canadian organization, and is a 4 room
cinderblock building. Workers are now in the process of adding 3 more rooms
which should house the Pre-K children when they are finished.(We brought cement bought by Fr. Lampy for that purpose). We visited each room, briefly
talked to the children, (1er AF to 3th AF).The 1st and 2nd grade classes were
packed with over 30 students. The 3rd graders sang to us a lovely welcome
song. I was sad that my camera wasn’t charged, so I wasn’t able to document
that day in Bercy nor Roche-Delmas, with pictures.
We saw the kitchen staff preparing lunch outside (rice and beans). We
didn’t see the children eat as we left early for Roche-Delmas. During
recreation (break) children went outside to relieve themselves, as there
are no toilets. Fr. Lampy told the principal to make sure children moved
away from the building into the bushes, to avoid creating more unsanitary
conditions. Mme Porfil, the principal, gave us the dossiers for the
sponsored children, to deliver to Thomas-a-Becket, and told us that they
would need shoes, backpacks, and supplies like chalk and crayons especially
if the Twinning Program container came in the summer as it did last year.
Roche Delmas
Roche Delmas is located in a larger village, closer to Cavaillon, but with
difficult access. The school teaches PreK to 4 AF. Two classes (3rd and 4th)
are held in the church, as is Ms. Gerlie, the principal’s office. Others in
a Build-On cinder-block building – modest, but very solid and well
maintained. There are outside toilets for use of students and faculty.
Students were very welcoming, sang and told us of their thanks, prayers and
welcome to us, the visitors.“Merci,chers visiteurs”. We assured them of our
prayers and thoughts, and told them that their best thanks would be prayers
for us, and hard work in school.
I met with Ms Gerlie and her assistant director (her father) about the
needs of the school. She gave me the dossiers that they had prepared, for
the current students, and many more for possible students sponsorship. She
confirmed their needs for the students: shoes, backpacks, chalk, crayons.
Ms. Gerlie is a very personable and efficient director, as shown by the
dossiers she prepared and our welcome. As we left, she told me that
sponsored students had brought some fruit from home, to give the
Godparents’ representatives, as a Thank you! I asked her to thank them for
us, and assumed that the fruit would be left at the school to feed the
children. But when I saw the kids loading the fruit in the back of the
truck, I was amazed... Father Lampy told me that we needed to accept them.
They would be put to good use in the rectory. Again, we were awed by the
generosity of the people we met, even with their very limited means. A
Haitian proverb says “when dinner is ready, all are welcome” (Quand la
nourriture est prête, tout le monde est le bienvenu”. Our hosts showed us
the truth of that statement during our whole week in Haiti.
After a busy week visiting all schools, we are very convinced that our
mission is helpful. Children are educated and fed; our Godparents’
donations go where they do a lot of good. We still have questions about the
future of many of the young people who leave our programs: We alone cannot
change the culture of Haiti, so we, as a committee, need to decide if we
want to continue our mission as is, or if we want to go in a different
direction. We have already started, by using Kamak, to empower many people
to raise their own standard of living. We will continue to demand
accountability from those who receive our funds, but in no instance did we
get the impression that funds were misappropriated.
During our week in Cavaillon, we stopped by Immaculee Conception School, a
very modest school close to the rectory. Here students are taught in two
sessions, morning or afternoon. Most of the afternoon students are
Restaveks, which means they are children abandoned by their families, who
are placed in service with others. They pay no tuition. Fr. Lampy uses some
of the money he gets from running the grain mill to pay for the school. The
grain mill which had been broken has now been fixed. Angela, Richard and
Elise saw it in action. It is used by the whole Cavaillon community. Fr.
Lampy had it fixed, with school funds and the money we had sent from our
fall fundraiser. We asked why that school, which seems poor, isn’t
sponsored. He told us that 20 of the Restavek students receive help from a
SOS organization. Could we consider helping him out if we find other
sponsors for Flamands, Sudre, or Boileau?
We also asked Fr. Lampy during some of our discussions why the Boileau
school received more than its share of our donations, and he told me that
was because it had been set up that way before he arrived. He told me he
would change it, so schools received a monthly amount proportional to the
number of their sponsored students. He sent me an email yesterday, where he
told me how he had divided the money for February 2013. (We had sent
$7,000, so he shared $6975, including a fee of $25 for Fonkoze)
(Inequalities are due to the amounts already received from September 2012
to February 2013)
We don’t yet have final totals for 2012-13
Boileau $1500 21.5% 28%
Flamands $1500 21.5% 24%
Sudre $500 7% 11%
Berrette $1500 21.5% 24%
Mission $975 14% 6%
Roche Delmas $1000 14.5% 7%
Total $6975 100% 100%
Flamands $1500 21.5% 24%
Sudre $500 7% 11%
Berrette $1500 21.5% 24%
Mission $975 14% 6%
Roche Delmas $1000 14.5% 7%
Total $6975 100% 100%
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